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Judi Lynn

(160,211 posts)
Wed Aug 8, 2018, 10:17 PM Aug 2018

Ecuador's Indigenous Activists Are Under Attack. Will the Government Protect Them?


BY ERIKA GUEVARA-ROSAS | AUGUST 7, 2018

President Lenín Moreno should make protecting indigenous groups a priority, says Amnesty International's Americas director.


In the early morning of Jan. 5, Patricia Gualinga heard a commotion outside her home in the Amazon town of Puyo, Ecuador. A man was yelling threats and throwing rocks at her house.

“You bitch, next time we will kill you!” she recalled him shouting.

As a leader of the indigenous Kichwa Peoples of Sarayaku, Gualinga suspects she was targeted for campaigning against oil extraction projects that threaten the environment.

As indigenous peoples from across Ecuador commemorate the International Day of the World’s Indigenous Peoples on Aug. 9, activists such as Gualinga will demand that Ecuador’s President Lenín Moreno fulfills his promise to protect them and their territories. The day comes as a string of recent threats and attacks against indigenous human rights defenders, like the one against Gualinga, has highlighted the risks they face.

More:
http://americasquarterly.org/content/ecuadors-indigenous-activists-are-under-attack
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